the_mysterious_mr_enterfandomcom-20200214-history
Hey Arnold Review/Transcript
Pigeon Man: 'You see Arnold...it's time for me to leave here. Some people are meant to be with people...and others...like me...are just...different. '''Arnold: '''Pigeon Man, wait. None of this would have happened if I hadn't- '''Pigeon Man: '''Arnold...don't be sad. You've taught me that some people '''can '''be trusted...and I'll never forget that. ''(Intro) Alright, to get this out of the way, ''Hey Arnold! ''is one of my favorite cartoons of all time. Not just within the Nicktoons. It's not my ''absolute favorite Nicktoon, that's Avatar, but Hey Arnold! ''would probably be my second. Unless I come across some 'really 'big surprise this winter. I don't know if I'd put ''Hey Arnold! ''in my top 10 'absolute 'favorite cartoons, but it certainly is in the top 20. I've actually heard all kinds of reactions to this show, some of which surprised me. But I get it. ''Hey Arnold! ''is a cartoon that's not really like any other, at least, for the time it was created. It came out in the mid-nineties, when cartoons were more wild and out-there than they had ever been before. And here's ''Hey Arnold! ''which is a show that's a lot quieter, a lot more subtle. And...there pretty much isn't an episode of the show that couldn't take place in reality. Although it did have quite a bit of cartoonish exaggeration here and there. There definitely are some superficial resemblances to ''Doug, and...Doug ''has problems. ''Hey Arnold! ''is a slice-of-life cartoon on the subtle side of the tracks. It can be slow, and I definitely get that's not for everyone. When some people want to watch cartoons, they wanna laugh. And ''Hey Arnold! ''is not a show that focuses on that. There are definitely jokes here and there; Arnold's grandmother is a pretty hilarious character all things considered. But story and heart takes more focus than anything else in this show. ''Doug ''took place in the small town of Bluffington, while ''Hey Arnold! takes place in a huge city called Hillwood. Yes, this series is going to be a good excuse to fix many of the details that I got wrong in my former reviews. (Shows a black screen with a caption that reads: '''In my defense of saying "Hey Arnold takes place in an expy of New York City in a previous review.')'' Gerald: 'Arnold! It's the day before Christmas! There's millions of people in this city! ''(Another caption reads: "'Millions of people" i.e. more than one. In 1996, only three US cities had 2 million + people: New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, none of which are in the Pacific Northwest where Hillwood is supposedly located. The demographics and architecture within are much closer to New York than Chicago, and the weather makes it unlikely that it takes place in an expy of LA. As for me calling it "Aron City", that was just me being an idiot. I don't know where that came from.)'' Big cities like this are very diverse places with a wide array of characters, and the cast of Hey Arnold! ''is more than colorful. There are so many different side characters and extras that I still remember strongly today. From Arnold's teacher Mr. Simmons, to the butcher Mr. Green. The boarding house in which Arnold lives is also filled with all kinds of interesting characters. They do follow typical archetypes like Oskar's the no-name loser who is completely unreliable, but even in these cases the show gives them 'big 'and '''strong personalities. Not necessarily loud personalities, but strong personalities. ''Hey Arnold! ''is a good showcase that a character doesn't need to over-emote and shout all the time in order to really stand out. You remember each and every person that you encounter while watching ''Hey Arnold!. Even some of the background characters have something distinct about them. The only character that I think suffers and isn't quite up to par is well, Arnold himself, unfortunately. Yeah, I think that even most fans of the series will agree that...the personality of the titular character is the weakest of them all. At the start of the show, he was really bland. How was it put way back when? Just an average kid that no one understands? It is another similarity to Doug. Although I will have to defend Arnold from those '''absolute '''comparisons. Arnold doesn't quote-unquote ''feel very often, but when he does he can...feel very strong. We actually see him get angry at times, fed up, sad, afraid...There is a gambit of emotions that you didn't really see with Doug. Although the most interesting things about Arnold...tends to be the things that aren't his personality. He lives in a boarding house with his grandparents, his actual parents went missing in the jungle, and he has a pet pig named Abner. If you don't know, this is not a good way to make a character stand out or, be really interesting at all. A character's environment or even their hobbies is not '''their personality. I don't think I ever cared about that problem though, because...you do need a balance in every sense of the word. Because Arnold is...let's call him quiet, that all stories to be about just about anyone else in the entire city. In a Mr. Hyunh episode, Hyunh is going to be the one who's going to dominate the screen presence over Arnold. Although I will have to say that flanderization did hit Arnold as a character and it could get quite distracting. I know, I know. How do you flanderize a character that has very little personality? Well, he started as a good kid always willing to help those around him. By the end of the series, he was basically Jesus, going out of his way to solve everyone and anyone's problems, without any flaws of his own. It's not as bad as other series because, you know, it's in the opposite direction of most shows. In most cases, flanderization is where they ramp up a character's flaw more and more each episode. So...it's another thing that didn't really bother me, although I could see it bothering some people. Because, what's good in this show is the thing that I find most important to me, and that's the storytelling and the heart within it. In fact, this Nicktoon may have more heart than ''any other''. In terms of slice-of-life, Hey Arnold! ''is the best at it, from pretty much every cartoon that I've ever watched. That's because this show has a hell of a lot of heart, and it was willing to take risks that most other cartoons at the time were not. ''Ren & Stimpy ''and ''Rocko's Modern Life were fully okay with referencing things that only adults would get, and shooting crap past the radar. Rocko would attack adult issues with a childish edge. Even episodes like "Leap Frogs" were meant to tell jokes, not actually delve into the issue of adultery. While Hey Arnold! ''never dealt with adultery as far as I remember, it's hard to think of anything else that it didn't at least ''try ''to do. The episodes dealing with Helga's family are perhaps the biggest example of that. Helga came from an abusive home, and while the show didn't outright state it, they didn't sugarcoat it, and showcased it for the reality that it was. Both of Helga's parents preferred Olga to Helga and displayed clear parental favoritism. This gave Olga a lot of pressures to the point where she essentially had panic attacks and broke down crying, when Helga made her think that she got a B from college. Big Bob was a scummy scam artist, while Helga's mother...was an alcoholic. I'm not even exaggerating. The censors told Craig Bartlett that they couldn't show it directly, but they got around it by always having Miriam drink smoothies. One of the ingredients shown is tabasco sauce, which is used in many alcoholic mixes. It's usually used in a Bloody Mary, which is used as a hangover cure. At one point, Helga even asks her mother if she got her license back, implying that she had a DUI. That's just one of the more famous examples. Even one-off characters got a surprising amount of depth with their stories taken incredibly seriously. Sometimes they do do metaphors, like "Chocolate Boy's Chocolates" is a stand-in for a typical addiction, but other times they don't do that at all, and tell the story as straight as possible. "Pigeon Man" is probably one of the most well-known episodes of the series. It goes heavily into being an outcast and learning that some people ''can ''be trusted. And of course, there's "Arnold's Christmas." If you could only watch one episode of that show, hell, any show, I'd recommend watching that one. It goes deep into being separated from a family member, not just any family member, but a child, due to war. It's something that I and many others watch every single Christmas. '''Mr. Hyunh: '''The only way out of the city was by helicopter. There were too many people. I begged the soldier "Please! Please take us! Have us find a new life!" But he could not. He said there was only room for one of us. Then...I had to make the most difficult decision of my life. I knew...I had to do the best thing for Mai. I knew if I gave Mai to the soldier, they would take care of her. "Oskar Can't Read" is another good episode like this, where it's revealed that our favorite loser Oskar is illiterate. Instead of making fun of him and treating him like, well, a loser, the episode goes into the struggles that Oskar has, in not just reading but, getting over himself. Believe it or not his episodes tend to be universally interesting. And that is something that I can say about the storytelling of the show as a whole. ''Hey Arnold! ''has this reputation where every single episode is this "deep Renaissance of storytelling." It's not. Not every single episode is like the ones that I just mentioned. These episodes do come out more often than you'd expect, but other times the stories are just down-to-earth, slice-of-life bits. Even when the stories aren't deep though, I do find them incredibly interesting. Stories like a ghost train that drags you down to hell, a tribute to ''Twelve Angry Men ''where Eugene is framed for pulling the fire drill, fourth graders trying to avoid being thrown into trash cans by the fifth graders. They're all really interesting. Even something that doesn't seem incredibly "grand" like a food eating contest or teacher's strike, I find myself more than a little involved with what's going on in the story, and most of it ''is memorable. The show can be really 'chill '''for lack of a better word, and that's helped with the aesthetics. ['Caption: More pencil sketch than water color] I just love the water color backgrounds and the relaxing background music. (Plays a bit of the background music in the show) This may just be a nostalgia thing because, just listening to some of the background music in this show, brings me right back to my childhood, where you didn't really have to worry about much and everything was just...so calm. I might be a little bit biased with this one, although, I didn't consider this show my life or anything as a kid, it's one of those shows that you like a lot, but only realize that you loved looking back. It's kinda the same way I feel with ''Hunchback of Notre Dame. As a kid, I liked it for...this and that, but as an adult, I like it for ''so much more, and the more that I watch it, the more I appreciate it and the more that I respect it. And I'm sure as time goes on, I'll like this show more and more. Stay away from the theatrical movie though. That's a piece of poop that I'll get to later. Jungle Movie ''was okay though. '''Announcer: '''Next on Nickelodeon... ''(Shows clip of the end of KaBlam intro) (End Credits Theme: "I Will Prevail" from the episode "Principal Simmons") Category:Nick-o-Rama Category:Transcripts